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Morgrave Miscellany
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Rick J. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/17/2019 17:51:43

I love Eberron, and Keith Baker has flexed his worldbuilding prowess again to deliver a great book for Eberron players and DMs alike. The information on each class and how they fit into the setting is fantastic.

However, the mechanics of this book leave a lot to be desired. The use of Hit Dice is novel, but it detracts from the power and longevity of each subclass more than it adds. A lot of the mechanics are far too wordy, and there is a tendency among the subclasses here to demand you spend resources to gain ways to spend even more resources in ways that are ultimately not that interesting. Almost every subclass is bogged down with some design paradigm that flies in the face of fifth edition and turns an interesting choice into one you would never choose.

If you want more Eberron lore and tons of great advice to turn your character from a setting-agonstic stat block into a true, blue, Eberron-born character, this book is great. If you want something that provides you with all the mechanical bits and bobs you truly need to fulfill Eberron in fifth edition, beyond Wayfinder's Guide... this ain't it. Back to the homebrew mines with you.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
Morgrave Miscellany
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5E Character Stream Widget (Fantasy Grounds)
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Rick J. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 12/22/2018 00:42:42

I was skeptical buying this, but Rob2e has done a lot for the FG community, so I bit the bullet and emptied some of my DMs Guild funds into it.

It took a few minutes, but it worked as-read. That is itself worth 2 or 3 stars. However... it is not perfect. I would say right now it is functional, with few bells and whistles. There are a number of things that a bit of coding would be well-warranted to make this simply a better product.

  1. Simplify installation and configuration. The readme.txt is lacking to say the least (including instructions on how to install the module and extension would be nice), and the installation guide being tied to an in-game reference manual makes it unwieldy, if barely usable. A readme PDF including all of this information would make the installation experience better, as a start. A more graphical installation and configuration experience would be a greatly appreciated change.
  2. Expand customization. I am not asking for a GUI editor, but at least having access to the HTML would give far more power to streamers. A little HTML and CSS wizardry could make these look pretty amazing, and being able to rearrange elements through HTML editing would open up a world of new design. Even now, you can edit CSS, but there does not appear to be any guide to how the CSS interacts with the widget's layout. This could be remedied with a simple guide to the class names used in the HTML layout.
  3. A video showing how to get it working and showing that it does in fact work would make people a lot less nervous to drop $20 on this. For small-time streamers, $20 can be a lot of money, and without my own DMs Guild products I definitely would not have bought this now, if ever.

I look forward to your continued work on this and through other Fantasy Grounds projects.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
5E Character Stream Widget (Fantasy Grounds)
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Creator Reply:
Rick: ThanX for the insightful review. Updates and improvements are planned and I’m sure your comments will go a long way with Shadzar (the programmer). A video is planned actually for today (12/22) we were just so excited to get it out there. A couple people were browbeating us to get it out. Ha. Anyway THANX for your support. We really appreciate it and hopefully on the very near future we will tweak it enough to your liking and perhaps we’ll even see you up your take to 5 stars. ThanX again Rick.
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DDAL-ELW00 What's Past is Prologue
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Rick J. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 09/23/2018 00:55:11

I am not sure how this got past conceptualization, or past an editor, or past playtesting. The second paragraph in the document contains a number of basic mistakes, one of which could be solved by looking at any basic map of the setting (Cyre is by no reasonable definition "north of Sharn"). Issues like this are found throughout the document.

Conceptually, this "adventure" is a mess. It's not much of an adventure. It is a series of cutscene players are meant to play through to set up for these 0th-level characters' NPC presence in future Eberron AL adventures. There is little to get out of this experience.

I want to believe that the creative team has some respect for the setting. After all, Eberron is coming back with support in organized play. There is no evidence of respect found in this, only a veil of Eberron put over half-baked ideas.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
DDAL-ELW00 What's Past is Prologue
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D&D5e Warlock Patron: The Genie
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Rick J. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/18/2016 17:48:56

The presentation and workings definitely need some work.

The fluff at the beginning is a bit lacking and the column layouti s really awkward. I would suggest making it part of the same column layout as the rest of the document, like 5e books do.

Mechanics-wise, having "Generic" + specific genie is a pretty good move.

Sure-footed is alright as far as a ribbon ability goes, which most patrons give at 1st level.

Friends of the Elementals has some potential, but "Elemental saving throws" isn't a demonstrated key phrase, so there's no real definition for it. "Beginning at 6th level, you gain advantage on all saving throws against effects that deal acid, cold, fire, lightning, or thunder damage." would be a better wording.

10th level's feature would be nice, but breaking concentration rules for players is kind of a huge no-no, especially with one like this that lets you break the action economy. As well, genies in the MM are all way more powerful than what the spell can normally let you summon.

And finally, damage immunity is a bit iffy. It might be fine, since it's one of a number of somewhat-uncommon types, but it's also something that no classes released thus far have access to.



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
D&D5e Warlock Patron: The Genie
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Recipe Crafting for Consumables
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Rick J. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/17/2016 21:56:45

This is... really, pretty good! While I may not agree with some of the designs here for their complexity, there's enough depth and decent balance for DMs to use when players want crafting beyond 5e's shallowness. There are a few places where the wording could be tightened up a bit ("When you make a Crafting skill check for brewing" in the Calligraphy section, for instance), though.

What I might suggest to get around the weird "subtract gold from your inventory" bit is to have a resource associated with a tool kit you have, that you can add to by buying them from an appropriate store or collecting appropriate ingredients. So you could say, spend 50 gp to have 50 gp of calligraphy resources, which is a pool you could subtract from when you craft with that tool. This avoids the pains of a more complex, piecemeal crafting system but also avoids the whole "you turned gold into alcohol" thing.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Recipe Crafting for Consumables
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Mockingbird: A Rogue Archetype
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Rick J. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/17/2016 21:30:20

Its presentation is... very poor.

It doesn't follow the progression of a roguish archetype, which is chosen at 3rd level (but it gives them a feature at 2nd?).

"Diminutive" is not a size in 5e.

"Beast Shapes" doesn't mention when you get the feature.

Eyes of the Magpie is partially useless to most 5e races (since they get darkvision already) and Investigation is one of the least-used stats in 5e.

"Imposter" is the exact same as the Assassin's 13th-level feature, but it isn't even spelled correctly.

Master of Many Forms' ability to ignore racial requirements is interesting, but there are so few magic items that have racial requirements in 5e that it's next to useless.

I liked the flavor in your description of this product but the product itself is very poor.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
Mockingbird: A Rogue Archetype
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Mystic Thrower: A Fighter Archetype
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Rick J. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/16/2016 02:28:21

While I've seen people desiring extra use and support for thrown weapons, and I feel some of the ideas in this document cover some of that, I also feel that this ultimately fails as a martial archetype. There is little flavor presented outside of "these are fighters that know range is important." However, ranged fighters already exist and do very well in every archetype Wizards has presented. This archetype does not describe how it would fit in a setting or how a player character would end up as one, and its features are simply too focused and altogether not that powerful.



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
Mystic Thrower: A Fighter Archetype
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Blood Magic (5e)
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Rick J. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/14/2016 01:26:14

The formatting is unique, above all. While I like the idea of a wizard who sacrifices their own well-being for power, I feel your implementation is... wanting. The "wounds" in Blood Magic aren't defined, and Power of Blood is a feature that will likely never come up in gameplay ever. Blood Magic is clearly based on the Bladesinger's main feature, Burn the Blood is based on the Storm sorcerer's feature of the same level.

On a more base level, expending hit dice for class features is a neat idea, but I'm not sure if the extra power you can get from it is worth giving up the longterm survivability of a class that is already so squishy.

On a more positive note, I adore the concept of a potion that can restore hit dice, even if it's only one.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
Blood Magic (5e)
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